Category Archives: personal

32 days without a car

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I had a call with the teams that are heading the conferences next week and I realized that I need to extend my stay in Singapore because there is no way I can finish all the tasks I am set to do. My boss told me yes, please extend because I need to meet Singapore candidate reporters as well. My colleague in Singapore will be taking her CFA Level 2 exam in November and after she passes that, I don’t have anything to offer her besides making her officially my deputy, which does not make any dent compared to other prospects that she will have. Even with a promotion and raise, what other financial institution can offer her would significantly be higher.

Stadium Road, Singapore. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So I must do some succession planning. I need to hire one or two new Singapore reporters and if I need to go back in September, then I should, even though I would like to limit my travel overseas. I need to make room for my S.Korea working-holiday in October-November.

If this colleague-friend would leave soon, then there would be a big gaping wound in my team because she is very good. It’s going to be a huge wound, I tell you.

So there, I would be arriving from Singapore on 2 August and would be fetched by my mom’s driver from the airport at midnight and sleep in my mom’s house for a few hours then go straight to my college’s testimonial and recognition rites. Then my mom’s driver would bring me back to QC.

Today is hectic with calls, editing, and the amount of writing I must do. I’m still creating charts now to include in my crystal ball-gazing article for the region, which our commercial team is asking me to finish NOW because they will include this in the conference next week.

With the amount of ass-kicking I’m doing, I must really ask for another round of raise by the end of this year.

young female freelancer with laptop and notepad in kitchen
Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

I have four to five pending articles I must write this week. Heaven knows how I would be able to shoehorn it tomorrow when I need to fetch my car, do more food shopping because I would be out of this house for 10 days, and I also need to buy a dress.

My head is swimming. I am wearing four hats all at once and I don’t have mental space for anything else.

That makes my S. Korea holiday a welcome respite from this chaos.

I decided I would be working in Seoul for the first week I would be there and just rent a unit via Airbnb and wait for my friends to arrive the following week. I was already exchanging emails this morning with the PE that I would be visiting there in October. I would just fix my schedule there after this SG trip since I would be meeting some Korean LPs in Singapore. Then I would just let my friends take charge of the itinerary because I’m tired of managing my life. I’ll be happy just being dragged along and be brainless. Anyway, I don’t have any real target that I must achieve/see in Seoul or wherever we would be going. Until Japan opens up to individual tourists without Japan-based family (and not group tours), Korea would be my best alternative holiday destination for this year.

OK, I must go back to my writing chore. The commercial team is waiting for my draft.

TIMECHECK: 12:35 am 21 July —> submitted draft to commercial team and to editing pool

I’M ALREADY BRAIN-DEAD.

31 days without a car

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OK, I will be getting my car on Thursday because I need it to drive to the concert venue on Friday (at SM MOA Arena in Pasay) as my best friend and the girls will be watching that Kpop concert while I wait for them in some coffee shop. But I would have to return the car on August 4 for the finishing touches on my car.

I should be returning it on the 31st but I received an email from my undergrad college that I am being invited to be their keynote speaker for their Testimonial and Recognition Rites a.k.a. College-wide rites on 3 August. Therefore I need my car.

Photo by Philippine Star

I was floored.

Hello…only famous people get invited to be keynote speakers in UP graduation rites.

I’m not famous. I don’t have anything of significance. I don’t know…

Anyway, it is an honor to speak before them. I’m scared at the same time.

I drafted my speech and sent copies to my mom, my best friend, and the chair of the graduate school who is also my sister in my Greek-letter organization in college. Both my sis and my bff said my speech is strongly worded. My mom already wanted it to share to other people. I told my mom, hold your horses, just share it after my actual speech since it will still evolve.

It will be live streamed. I wonder how this will fare as whatever I will say will ruffle some feathers. Many feathers.

I need a new dress and shoes. 🥰

29 days without a car

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UP Sunken Garden. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Finally, after a month I was able to ride my bike again but this time it was rather weird that I had a harder time. Maybe because I slept at 4 am? But it turned out that it was my first day of mens (learned when I got back home) so no wonder I was so sluggish and I easily got tired.

Not a lot of people exercising since it was drizzling. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was able to shop for a week’s worth of vegetables. It’s really a lot cheaper inside the UP campus compared to the veggie stalls along C.P. Garcia. This week’s haul was only PHP 560 and my veg compartment in my fridge is overflowing.

The drizzle was getting heavier so I stopped at Infinitea along Maginhawa St. to rest and cool off.

I shouldn’t have caffeine but what the heck, I want this.

According to my smart watch, I burned almost 700kcal form cycling alone but then I compensated with milktea so I no longer know the net calories burned 😂.

Oh that gold chain there? That’s my face mask necklace so I dont’ have to fish for it in my bag/beltbag or put it on the table when drinking/eating. I just let the mask hang on from my neck; it’s more sanitary that way.

I was am sooo tired that I told the girls we will just do the grocery shopping tomorrow.

I’m now preparing for the coming week, fixing my schedule and to-do list. I need to email my interview questions later for my interview at 11 am. I have back-to-back-to-back calls tomorrow, so Lord, give me strength to last the day while my body is uncooperative.

My Filofax system that I find works best for me. CallMeCreation.com

Hopefully, I would be able to write three articles this week so I don’t have to worry about it when I’m in Singapore chasing people for the entire week. I don’t even know if I could edit stories while in conferences for four whole days. 😶 I chose a hotel with a swimming pool so I can swim after work because gyms really don’t do it for me. I guess I can work at night to finish the edits. I don’t think I would be having drinks after work unless absolutely necessary. I’m avoiding socializing with people I would be meeting there. I should learn my lesson.

I don’t think I have enough time to do some sketching there. 😑 Ah, all work and no play make me so boring.

I’m tired. I may need to sleep earlier tonight. Damn this period.

I’ll end this evening on a high note. As an ex-football player, this breaking news just cheers my old broken futbolera bones. (An ex-goalie with busted knees).

28 days without a car

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Yup, it’s almost a month since I went out of my 4-km radius. To make matters worse, it has been raining so I couldn’t ride the bike to go anywhere. Physically yes, I can bike under the rain but I don’t want to risk getting sick before I am to leave the country for the first time since July 2019 (Jakarta).

I can last a month without seeing other people. 🤔 The introverted side of me is ok with that.

So today I’m just stuck here as usual and I’m cleaning out my refrigerator so I’m using the last bit of ingredients in my pantry before I do another big shop.

Tonkatsu rice bowl with egg. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I made tonkatsu, which turned out good because I finally figured out how to do double frying as I’ve seen from Imamu’s Room Youtube channel. My kids loved it because it was crunchy and I seasoned the meat last night so the meat was savory. Since I don’t have mentsuyu to cook the pork with the egg, so I just made a runny sunny-side up fried egg to top my rice bowl. I paired this with miso soup with kombu.

For dinner, I made ramen and eggplant tempura and eggplant fritters.

Garlic pork tonkatsu ramen. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Eggplant tempura and eggplant fritters. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m down to my last vegetable dish tomorrow (sauteed squash with string beans) and I’m thinking whether I should add coconut milk and a bit of chili flakes since I don’t have sambal. Oh, I should remember to buy sambal and bak kut teh spices when I shop in Singapore. (*Makes a mental note*) I should haul my ass out of this house tomorrow to shop for fresh veggies.

Cooking is some kind of stress-reliever for me—as long as I don’t have to do the wash up after.

Next year when it will just be the three of us, I would be batch cooking and probably supplement it by hiring my mom’s cook on weekends. (Ate C and I agreed that I would be releasing her from my employment and I will just finance her last year in college as my scholar with the usual monthly allowance, her tuition, and other school expenses. She would be staying with her sister until she finishes college. It’s just for a year). Imamu’s Room and Nami on Youtube have tutorials on how to prep bento lunches–packed meals for my girls and prepared lunches for me because I’m too busy with work to bother cooking during weekdays.

I will buy a robo-vacuum for daily cleaning and hire my mom’s bi-weekly cleaning lady for general cleaning during weekends. Besides, it wouldn’t be that hard to clean a 52-sqm apartment. The girls are already folding and putting away clean laundry as part of their daily chores and I would start them now with doing their own laundry with our automatic washing machine. How hard can it be?

The only thing that I dread doing starting next year is the daily litter box cleaning, because my critters are useless 🙄. When you are owned by a cat, you clean up after them for life. That is a fact.

Yup, I couldn’t lie on my bed because they have already commandeered it. I adjust 😂. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

We are in a scarier environment now with the China credit crunch unraveling further. While US economists/pundits are debating whether they are already in recession, China logs the slowest YoY growth in eons, registering 0.4% growth in 2Q22. Then here comes the threat of end-buyers/homebuyers not paying their loans because housing projects couldn’t proceed as real estate companies suffer from the Evergrande fallout.

China’s real estate sector is grappling with a crisis that has seen developers squeezed by eye-watering levels of debt, sparking a string of bond defaults among major groups including Shimao and China Evergrande — the world’s most indebted developer with about $300 billion in liabilities.

This is like the US subprime crisis of 2007-2008, just a different flavor and shown with subtitles.

When the world’s two largest economies are hobbling, then not far behind is probably the Great Financial Crisis 2.0. We are going to see a domino effect that could further weigh down emerging markets like ours, which are already suffering from sky-high prices of goods and services. I’ve been editing a number of stories that point to tightening of belts and external funding already coming in trickles. Soon the tap will be turned off for the time being as market chaos reigns. Huge valuation differences and forex issues (especially for the Philippines, which saw its currency weakening from 53 to 56 in just 30 days) are holding up deals.

This is a tough year; next year would be horrible.

I should move quickly and have my house up before December so if there is some kind of financial fuck-up that may happen, being homeless will be the least of my problems. I have logged a lot of paper losses from my investments and I’m kicking myself for not shifting my pure equity funds last year into fixed income because I was too lazy. I’ll just treat this market rout into a buying opportunity.

We should treat food insecurity with self-sufficiency and generosity. I will plant an edible garden and alongside that is encouraging people to do the same. A half kilo of minced meat and eggs with lots of vegetables go a long way for food-insecure families.

I’m holding everything with bated breath.

27 days without a car

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Primer. I need more dry days for the finishing and buffing.

Keeping my fingers crossed, praying for more dry days so the paint job will be finally done. The broken taillight will be replaced and hopefully I can take this home early next week before I leave for Singapore. ❤

There are still a lot to be done with this car: central locks and alarm, new carpeting, new tint, and sound system (but that is already the least of the things I must do). When my house is completed by December, I’ll start hauling my books and arrange it there. I found that when moving houses, the books are the most difficult to pack and unpack. I will be moving small items little by little so by May of next year, only the big ones will be moved. If the headwinds have died down and the economy recovers from this horrible stagflation, then I will sell this and get myself that new Toyota Avanza for minimal headache.

I’m still thinking if it’s still worth it to reupholster my couch or just buy a new sofa bed from Ikea. From a sustainability perspective, I should have my current sofa reupholstered so that there would be less waste. From a cost standpoint, I don’t know if it would be cheaper. Let’s see after I consult with the reupholsterer.

I think this would be safe from my cats. FYRESDAL Daybed with 2 mattresses, black/Ågotnes firm
Besides, Twin I also wanted this particular sofa bed and begged me to buy it for our house. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Why would I want a sofa bed? I remember in high school and college, we had a constant stream of friends sleeping over at our house since we had five rooms that can accommodate them. I mean, all of us children had short-term (friends’ homes are far and they want to take naps in between classes and a comfortable place to study) and long-term guests (friends from broken families who needed to get away from the chaos of their homes; friends with no family to stay with during Christmas breaks). My parents made our home open to our friends and I want to keep that tradition. All of our friends had fond memories of spending time in our house. My friends spent their Fridays with me, watching movies in our tiny second floor TV area when we were in high school. In college, our house is where my friends spent and got rid of their hangovers.

I made sure that in the new plan for my tiny house, the kitchen will take the center stage as I will be providing a lot of food for hungry teenagers—and for my sister-in-law and cousin who love my cooking. I’m not an excellent cook but I do some dishes exceptionally well. My friend K and everybody else in my family love my potato salad combined with grilled fish or meat.

Hotpot with mishua tonight. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’m excited about the my prospects for the next 12 months. I’m already drawing in my head the plan for the back garden and the front garden. I already have the laborers in mind and the things that should be done (compost pit, growing beds, flower beds, irrigation system, and movable chicken coop).

And this is the goal:

And no one is allowed to rain on my parade.

A colleague asked me today why can’t I just ignore those catfishers? I said, “because I’m bored.” I also want to release this pent-up fury through passive aggressiveness towards unscrupulous strangers. I want to hit and hit ’em hard.

I know this will backfire on me but I just want to get even with the opposite sex, even though it doesn’t really make sense. It’s not even apples to apples but doing this cools my deep-seated anger. I recognize that this anger is unjustified but can you blame me for harboring it?

My journey to healing is still long and hard.

26 days without a car

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This just happened this afternoon on my Instagram that is set on private.

This is how they catfish people and I read on Reddit that it’s very prevalent on dating apps.

On IG, these catfishers just message me out of the blue. But you just don’t do that to me—it’s just like walking into Mordor. I’m suplada so I just say it bluntly and stick a knife into you. 😂 Especially now that I have PMS and I’m constantly irritable.

And I did this to another random guy messaging me a few months ago.

And another random guy in February

Then they block me 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. They figured I’m not worth the effort. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Ladies, use Google Lens to reverse-search the photos of these random men who message you out of the blue. One guy who messaged me I think last month used Korean model Dongwon Bin’s photos and he has been catfishing women since 2019, as I discovered on Twitter.

On Instagram
On Twitter

And this is the legit IG account of the model

I just keep blocking people. I’ve blocked a lot of men (and trolls and orcs) on Twitter, too. I do not delude myself into thinking that a person would be attracted to me with just one photo (since my profile is locked). So nope, go catfish someone else.

Some have tried on LinkedIn, too. One Indian guy was very persistent and kept messaging me to help him find programmers to recruit in the Philippines (and I assume he’s not dumb not to see I am a journalist and that I have nothing to do with IT). Dude, I’m too busy! He kept on messaging me until I blocked him. I entertain random messages on LinkedIn because that’s how I gain access to people I want to interview so I return the favor. But if you’re going to be like this, no, you get blocked.

You know, nothing is really genuine in this day and age. All lies, all fake. Even the people you meet offline. That’s the scarier part—it’s harder to judge people you meet in person who turned out to be fake and liars.

Talk about rough experiences 🤬

People who are worth your time are those who will find you even if you are living as a hermit deep in the woods (which I would be doing soon). They will find you.

And as previously stated, happiness comes from cats, not relationships 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

That said, I’m calling an exterminator. I can’t risk my cats and my humans getting sick because of vermin—just because the nextdoor unit is a cesspit.